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Jensen Walcott and Jake Reed were both fired from their brand new jobs at Pizza Studio in Kansas City for asking a question about why Jake was hired for the same job at .25 more an hour. Social media, including an assist from Hillary Clinton, spread the story around the world and the two Basehor High (Kansas) students spoke about the experience.

Jensen Walcott and Jake Reed were both fired from their brand new jobs at Pizza Studio in Kansas City for asking a question about why Jake was hired for the same job at .25 more an hour. Social media, including an assist from Hillary Clinton, spread the story around the world and the two Basehor High (Kansas) students spoke about the experience.
David Eulittdeulitt@kcstar.com

Jensen Walcott and Jake Reed were both fired from their new jobs at Pizza Studio in Kansas City, Kan., for asking why Reed was hired for the same job at 25 cents more an hour.
David Eulittdeulitt@kcstar.com

She called the manager, curious about the 25-cent difference. The manager, a woman, fired her, saying it was against company policy to discuss wages. Reed lost his job too.

Reed said they wanted to speak up so other teens know that they can discuss their wages.

“People are still saying that you shouldn’t discuss wages,” Walcott said. “But I disagree. If you think that you should be getting paid the same as someone else doing the same thing as you, then you should definitely speak up about that.”

The California-based pizza chain has since said the manager was wrong about the policy. The manager was also let go, the company said in a statement. The National Labor Relations Act allows employees to discuss compensation.

“We plan to use this experience to better improve our hiring procedures and policies moving forward,” the company said.

Walcott and Reed’s story has since been picked up by national news outlets from People to Seventeen.

Walcott said Thursday she never thought the story would receive national attention.

“We thought Fox 4 was going to do a story on us, and we thought it might be a big deal to people who know us,” she said.

Despite the national attention, both said the past couple of weeks have been normal — with a few exceptions.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton tweeted about Walcott last week: “Good for you, Jensen. Every woman deserves equal pay, no matter what her age. Keep up the hard work — and courage! -H”

Reed said another highlight was an animated version of their story. At the end, a cartoon version of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump pops out of the phone to fire them.

“I’ve gotten some Facebook messages from people I didn’t know, just telling me they are inspired by me and appreciate me speaking up,” Walcott said.

Both Walcott and Reed have since found other jobs. They are trying to move on.